How Internet of Things will Revolutionize Healthcare

According to a report from Market Research, healthcare IoT market’s total worth will reach a whopping $117 billion by the end of 2020. This shows the climacteric important of Internet of Things in the healthcare industry. In this article we will talk about the most important healthcare sectors which will be transformed by Internet of things.

Remote Monitoring and Tracking

Internet of Things will completely change the way doctors and health experts track their patients’ health and routines. IoT brings disruptive tracking technologies, remote monitoring tools and devices that help in tracking patients. For example, famous UK health company Stanley Healthcare Solutions uses state of the art IoT technology to track patients and related assets. Its RTLS (Real-time Location Services) business makes special badges that could be attached to patients, wheelchairs and different things. These badges relay location information and help doctors to quickly respond to crucial situations.

Cardiac Health and IoT

Heart problems are some of the most common causes of deaths around the world. IoT will affect cardiac health tracking by providing an easy way using which patients could track their heart beats. There are several heart rate monitors and chest straps in the market which show the complete heart beat patterns of the day. You can imagine a system which will trigger an alert to the doctor whenever a patient’s heartbeat shows abnormal signs. This way, heart attacks will be easy to avoid, as they would be detected before they escalate. MyZone M3 and Polar are two examples of HRM and chest straps.

Ingestible Sensors and Smart Pills

Imagine this: a diabetic feels faint and goes for a nap. He wakes up to a team of medics taking care of him, as they tell him that they saved him from going into a “diabetic coma”, which could often lead to death. How were the medics able to detect that there was something wrong with the person? Ingestible sensors is the answer. IoT and advanced medicine technology will soon make it possible for patients to take ingestible sensors. These sensors will keep track of blood sugar levels, and other metrics, and trigger alerts to connected systems. California-based company Proteus Digital Health is already working on ingestible sensors and has raised over $50 million in funding from investors.

Health and Fitness Trackers

Health and fitness trackers have made is easy for everyone to track basic health metrics like calorie consumption, heat rates, number of steps taken daily etc. There are several fitness trackers in the market using which you can enjoy and experience the real power of Internet of Things. The effects of this IoT tech is increased awareness among users and a significant drop in health issues among the users of IoT-based fitness and health trackers.

Blood Testing and Diagnostics

IoT is going to revolutionize the entire dynamics of blood testing. In fact, a famous device made by Dr. Eugene Chan and his colleagues at the DNA Medical Institute (DMI) can detect diseases and health issues based on a single drop of blood. The device is rHealth. A patient just has to put one drop of blood on this device’s small receptacle. The blood then goes to micro-mixer of the device. Data variations in light intensity and scattering is used by rHealth to detect health problems. IoT will make blood testing and disease diagnostics much more advanced that the current levels.

Effect of IoT on Eye Health

Eye health is one of the most important realms of healthcare. Smart lens based on IoT is the next big thing in the modern healthcare. Google came up with its idea of smart contact lenses in 2014 using which patients could track their blood glucose levels. These lenses kill the hassle of testing sugar daily with painful devices, as eye tear drops can tell the blood glucose levels as precisely as a blood drop can. Google’s parent company Alphabet is also working on a contact lens that will fix the vision and retina sharpness using special fluids and electronics. This project of Alphabet is done by Verily Sciences. Similarly, Israel-based company Deep Optics is working on a smart lens which fixes the focus on the lens using electric circuits and light sensors.

How Internet of Things will Revolutionize Healthcare was last modified: January 16th, 2017 by Donald Carson